Who's holding?You boys sure know how to start a Monday off right
Now both of you go get laid or hit a bong and shut the fuck up
Actually, it's the female form of the masculine "Francis" and the name of a dear sweet woman in my life who died just a few days ago. I suppose she was on my mind. I'll edit accordingly.
I referenced atheism....so unless you're willing to admit, as you seem to have just done, that atheism is indeed a religion, then it would be you who first brought it up...unless, of course, you're willing to admit that atheism is a religion, in which case I'll gladly admit to being the first to interject religion into the conversation.
When you reference atheism as a contrasting point of view or example by which to prove a point, is the counter not theism?
I mentioned atheism as a counterpoint to MENSA, not theism. Both are secular groups. Both are undeservedly pretentious in my estimation and I made such a point - and then you brought up religion.
lol, sure thing Francis.
In my experience it does. I grew up in a religious environment and have since distanced myself from that. The atheists, or at least the ones that claim atheism are the loudest, most pretentious and most bigoted people I have ever dealt with. And I dealt with plenty when I was growing up in the church. If you don't believe, I think you should simply not believe. When you stand on your atheism soap box and use it to try to tear down religion or religious people, you are doing the exact same thing you perceive them to be doing.
Again, a complete lack of intellectual honesty. Are you really going to try and make the claim that you, as an atheist, have none of the "nastiness of religious belief" after you spent the better part of the past three years being one of the most harsh, belittling, and offensive personalities on ODT?
There is plenty of religiously motivated nastiness. Cool false dichotomy though. A lot of people perceive honesty as harsh and offensive if they don't agree with it. Sorry about your feelings.
I don't care about religion or theists as long as they aren't weaponizing their religion. You can pray to any god or goddess you want, just don't use their religious texts as an excuse to promote inequality, violence, or a primitive education for others. I don't have a problem with any parts of religion except the portions that spill over into my life or the lives of people that don't wish to be subjected to the will of your god or goddess.
I'm not disagreeing, I'm just saying it's a two way street. It seems the attitude of a lot of atheists is that the best defense is a good offense. I suppose that's understandable.
Imagine having to come up against legislation that was drafted in order to force citizens to live in accordance to Sharia law and the will of Allah. That's how atheists feel about christian motivated legislation....except more viscerally.
I don't think that's a fair comparison because we have been traditionally a christianity based nation and anything else is a move away from our roots. If I lived in a country that was founded on Sharia law and I decided to convert to christianity, I don't think I would expect the legislation to accommodate my beliefs.
Fortunately the US is not Iran, and the will of the people, and equality under the law matters. Your beliefs should be accommodated, as you should be free to live as you wish.
But if the vast majority of the people in a country claim a particular religion and they are (theoretically) represented by elected officials, the the legislation they write is going to reflect the core principals of that religion. I don't see how you can argue that it "shouldn't spill over into your life". To expect it not to seems counterintuitive. I don't want to be "forced to comply" with a religion I disagree with either. That's not what this is about.
I agree with the government staying out of it, but there are legal and financial inequalities associated with being able to marry or not. In addition, it's possible to be gay and a christian. If pastors and priests decided to disallow the marriage of anyone that sins, then marriage wouldn't exist. There's no reason to single our sexuality when all sins are equal in the eyes of the christian god. That's what I mean by weaponizing religion to promote inequality.
